1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a method for setting an IP (Internet Protocol) address, and more particularly to a method for setting an inherent IPv6 (Internet Protocol version 6) address of a vehicle using a vehicle identification number including specified vehicle information
2. Description of the Related Art
The present Internet Protocol version 4 (IPv4) has not been changed since the request for comment (RFC) 791 announcement in 1981. It has been proven that IPv4 can be easily implemented and can perform mutual operations. It was seen that networks can be extended through IPv4 so that the Internet of the present extensive scale can be used globally.
IPv4 is an IP (Internet Protocol) that is currently used, and can be expressed as a decimal number composed of four 8 bits. An IPv4 address is represented by four octets separated by periods (“.”), where the respective separated numbers are in the range of 0 to 225. This whole address is globally unique.
An IPv4 address includes a structure having a virtual net ID (i.e., a name assigned to a network to which a corresponding computer belongs and a host ID (i.e., a name assigned to a single corresponding computer). IP addresses are divided into five (i.e., A to E) grades, and each grade represents a network that can be expressed by the IP address having a form of the corresponding grade and the number of hosts. At present, A, B and C grades are generally used in the Internet.
However, with the rapid growth of the Internet, the drain of address space is at hand, and a need for security in an Internet Protocol standard is becoming more necessary. Also, better resources are required to provide a Quality of Service (QoS) for real-time data transfer.
In order to resolve above described drawbacks and needs, the IETF (Internet Engineering Task Force) has developed protocols and standards named IPv6. IPv6 is composed of an address system of 128 bits, and has a structure in which network prefixes and interface IDs (Interface Identifiers) are combined. IPv6 is the next-generation Internet Protocol that accommodates four times more information, i.e. IP addresses, than IPv4, the existing 32-bit system. IPv6 can easily overcome any technical and physical limitations of IPv4 in the IP address accommodation, multimedia real-time process and security capability.
Currently, in order to access the Internet from vehicles, there is an increasing trend to mount a communication module inside the vehicles. This will tremendously increase the need for additional IP addresses, it is therefore necessary to use IPv6, which is capable of accommodating a large amount of information. In order to avoid collision, a respective IPv6 address, owned by a communication module that accesses the network, should have an inherent value in the network and thus diverse methods for setting inherent IPv6 addresses have been proposed.
When an IPv6 address is set, an Extended Unique Identifier EUI-64 type interface ID is generally set using an Ethernet MAC (Media Access Control). A method for setting the IPv6 address will be explained with reference to FIGS. 1A to 1D.
FIGS. 1A to 1D will now be used to explain a process of setting an IPv6 address. Referring to FIGS. 1A to 1D, lower 64 bits of a 128-bit IPv6 address are constructed using its own 48-bit MAC address. More specifically, the 48-bit MAC address “00:24:30:33:FC:A2”, as illustrated in the top line numbers of FIG. 1A, is briefly divided into halves. The first half of 24 bits (i.e., “00:24:30”) of the 48-bit MAC address indicates a “company ID”, and the remaining half of 24 bits (i.e., “33:FC:A2”) is used for extension of a respective company. Specifically, the MAC address is used for the purpose of indicating the serial numbers of products prepared by companies, and classifies the products themselves. This MAC address is converted into an EUI-64-bit address by adding a dummy “0xFFFE” address of 16 bits in the middle of the MAC address.
As shown in FIG. 1B, the seventh bit b1 from the most significant bit of the most significant byte “00” in FIG. 1A, to which “FF:FE” of 16 bits is added, is set to “1”. Accordingly, the lower 64-bit interface ID “02:24:30:FF:FE:00:24:30” of the IPv6 address results, as shown in FIG. 1B. Here, the seventh bit b1 of the most significant byte is a U/L (Universal/Local) bit used for reporting that the IPv6 address is globally unique. By combining a network prefix with the interface ID (See FIG. 1C) created through the above-described process, a global IPv6 address of FIG. 1D is set.
In addition to the above, described in the 3GPP (3rd Generation Partnership Project), a method for setting an IPv6 address using an IMEI (International Mobile Equipment Identity) of a mobile communication terminal has been proposed. However, a method for setting an IPv6 address using only an inherent value of a vehicle, has not yet been proposed.